Title: We Solve Murders
Author: Richard Osman
Series: We Solve Murders – #1
Dates Read: 26 – 27/09/2024
Published Date: 17 September 2024
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 387
Pace: Fast
Content Warnings (May contain spoilers)
Alcohol, Cancer, Car accident, Death, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Trafficking, Violence.
Who is this for? Teenagers, Young Adults, Adults.
This book covers:
- Being framed for multiple murders and having to solve the case before the police even begin investigating.
- A close bond between wife and father-in-law.
Format/Disclosure: Paperback, owned.
Rating: 4.5 ⭐
Review:
Amy works at an agency protecting the rich and famous from danger, and is currently on a remote island protecting a name known in every household. Meanwhile, Steve, her father-in-law, is living a quiet retired life, keeping watch over his local neighbourhood and looking forward to his daily phone calls with Amy. Suddenly, Amy’s employer catches wind that the recent deaths hitting the media may have actually been murder, and Amy is being framed for it. We follow Amy, Steve, and Amy’s current celebrity job race around the world trying to solve the case before the police even become aware that they were murders.
I’ll be the first to admit that one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much is because I read (& thoroughly loved) The Thursday Murder Club series. I think if I didn’t already have experience with those books, my enjoyment of this book wouldn’t have been as high. Amy is extremely dry, and even cardboard-like. Her conversations, her view of life, everything about her is just.. dry. Steve can be quite similar – they both live quite methodical and structured lives, and continue to circle back to their core beliefs – but Steve at least has a few things he truly cares about, and mentions often. It seems the only thing Amy truly has any passion or interest in is Steve and his wellbeing. Either way, they are still a fun duo to read, and it’s nice to see how Amy pushes him outside of his comfort zone, and how well they mesh together.
Amy is married to Steve’s son, Adam, however we very rarely actually hear from him – he interacts with Amy mostly via text, and I believe throughout the entire book, there’s maybe 2 phone calls. Steve and Adam have a strained relationship, and there is a poignant scene towards the end that lays the foundation for their relationship to improve, but ultimately I finished the book wondering why Adam even exists. This book would’ve still had the same emotion and flow if Amy had just been Steve’s direct daughter and cut out Adam altogether. Even the way Amy talks about Adam is in such a disinterested way – they talk about how their relationship & eventual marriage is based on the idea that eventually they’ll fall in love, but they’re not there yet. Just a bit odd.
I read a lot of thrillers, and I’m not always on the ball when it comes to guessing who the villain is, and this book had me so far off. I feel like I just went with the obvious choice (Possibly one that is set up to be the red herring/obvious choice) and they turned out to be quite a good person towards the end of the book. The actual villain was someone I didn’t even begin to think of, and I think that’s half clever writing, half a bit of a cop-out (Possible spoiler: Since they were introduced fairly late into the book and also didn’t feature a massive amount, it was easy to ignore them.. For obvious reasons.)
Altogether, this was an enjoyable read. I still prefer The Thursday Murder club cast to Amy & Steve, but I will pick up any future books in the series (Because it is going to be a series) and will hopefully also enjoy them. It would be nice to see Amy fleshed out a bit more – maybe given an actual personality, and also to see her and Adam featured more.